C2: Project Management Overview

20 de dezembro de 2020 11:47

1. Project Attributes
• A project has distinctive attributes that distinguish it from ongoing work or business
operations.
• Projects are temporary in nature - have definitive start dates and end dates.
• A large part of the project effort is dedicated to ensuring that the project is completed
at the appointed time.
○ To do this schedules are created showing when tasks should begin and end.
○ Projects can last minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
○ Projects exist to bring about a product or service that hasn’t existed before.
○ In this sense, a project is unique, new, this has never been done before.
• In contrast with projects, operations are ongoing and repetitive.
○ They involve work that is continuous without an ending date and with the same
processes repeated to produce the same results.
○ The purpose of operations is to keep the organization 20 functioning while the
purpose of a project is to meet its goals and conclude.
○ Therefore, operations are ongoing while projects are unique and temporary.
• A project is completed when its goals and objectives are accomplished.
○ It is these goals that drive the project, and all the planning and implementation
efforts undertaken to achieve them.
• Sometimes projects end when:
○ it is determined that the goals and objectives cannot be accomplished;
○ Or the product or service of the project is no longer needed and the project is
cancelled.

2. Definition of a project
• Project: a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or
result.
• The end is reached when the project’s objectives have been achieved or when the
project is terminated because its objectives will not or cannot be met, or when the
need for the project no longer exists.

3. Project Characteristics
• When considering whether or not you have a project on your hands, there are some
things to keep in mind.
○ First, is it a project or an ongoing operation?
○ Second, if it is a project, who are the stakeholders?
○ And third, what characteristics distinguish this endeavor as a project?
• Projects have several characteristics:
○ Projects are unique.
○ Projects are temporary in nature and have a definite beginning and ending date.
○ Projects are completed when the project goals are achieved or it’s determined
the project is no longer viable.
• A successful project is one that meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders.
• To examine the assignment you can ask:
○ Is it unique?
○ Does the product have a limited timeframe?
○ Is there a way to determine when the project is completed?
○ Is there a way to determine stakeholder satisfaction?

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 ○
• These requirements will be compared to the finished product to determine if it meets
the expectations of the stakeholder.
○ If the answer is yes to all these questions, then we have a project.

4. The process of Project Management

• Many projects don't plan or follow a plan. And that is a primary contributor to a large
percentage of projects not meeting their original objectives, as defined by
performance, schedule, and budget.
• The majority of this waste is completely avoidable:
○ simply get the right business needs (requirements) understood early in the
process;
○ ensure that project managementtechniques are applied and followed;
○ the project activities are monitored.
• Applying good project management discipline is the way to help reduce the risks.
• Having good project management skills does not completely eliminate problems, risks,
or surprises. The value of good project management is that you have standard
processes in place to deal with all contingencies.
• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques
applied to project activities in order to meet the project requirements.
• Project management is a process that includes planning, putting the project plan into
action,
and measuring progress and performance.
• Managing a project includes identifying your project’s requirements and writing down
what everyone needs from the project.
○ What are the objectives for your project? When everyone understands the goal,
it’s much easier to keep them all on the right path.
○ Make sure you set goals that everyone agrees on to avoid team conflicts later on.
○ Understanding and addressing the needs of everyone affected by the project
means
the end result of your project is far more likely to satisfy your stakeholders.
○ Last but not least, as project manager, you will also be balancing the many
competing project
constraints.
• On any project, you will have a number of project constraints that are competing for
your attention. They are cost, scope, quality, risk, resources, and time.
○ Cost is the budget approved for the project including all necessary expenses
needed to deliver the project.
▪ Within organizations, project managers have to balance between not
running out of money and not under spending because many projects
receive funds or grants that have contract clauses with a “use it or lose it”
approach to project funds.
▪ Poorly executed budget plans can result in a last-minute rush to spend the
allocated funds.
▪ For virtually all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting constraint; few projects
can go over budget without eventually requiring a corrective action.
○ Scope is what the project is trying to achieve.
▪ It entails all the work involved in delivering the project outcomes and the
processes used to produce them.
▪ It is the reason and the purpose of the project.
○ Quality is a combination of the standards and criteria to which the project’s
products must be delivered for them to perform effectively.
▪ The product must perform to provide the functionality expected, solve the
identified problem, and deliver the benefit and value expected.

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 identified problem, and deliver the benefit and value expected.
▪ It must also meet other performance requirements, or service levels, such
as availability, reliability, and maintainability, and have acceptable finish
and polish.
▪ Quality on a project is controlled through quality assurance (QA).
▪ QA is the process of evaluating overall project performance on a regular
basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality
standards.
○ Risk is defined by potential external events that will have a negative impact on
your project if they occur.
▪ Risk refers to the combination of the probability the event will occur and
the impact on the project if the event occurs. If the combination of the
probability of the occurrence and the impact on the project is too high, you
should identify the potential event as a risk and put a proactive plan in
place to manage the risk.
○ Resources are required to carry out the project tasks.
▪ They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable
of definition (usually other than labor) required for the completion of a
project activity.
○ Time is defined as the time to complete the project.
▪ Time is often the most frequent project oversight in developing projects.
This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete deliverables.
▪ Proper control of the schedule requires the careful identification of tasks to
be performed and accurate estimations of their durations, the sequence in
which they are going to be done, and how people and other resources are
to be allocated. Any schedule should take into account vacations and
holidays.
• “triple constraint” which traditionally consisted of only time, cost, and scope. These
are the primary competing project constraints that you have to be most aware of.
○ The triple constraint is illustrated in the form of a triangle to visualize the project
work and see the relationship between the scope/ quality, schedule/time, and
cost/resource.
• Your project may have additional constraints that you must face, and as the project
manager, you have to balance the needs of these constraints against the needs of the
stakeholders and your project goals.
○ For instance, if your sponsor wants to add functionality to the original scope, you
will very likely need more money to finish the project, or if they cut the budget,
you will have to reduce the quality of your scope, and if you don’t get the
appropriate resources to work on your project tasks, you will have to extend
your schedule because the resources you have take much longer to finish the
work.

Figure 2.2 A schematic of the triple constraint triangle. The triad constraints by John
M. Kennedy T.

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• • The best projects have a perfectly balanced triangle. Maintaining this balance is
difficult because projects are prone to change.
○ For example, if scope increases, cost and time may increase disproportionately.
Alternatively, if the amount of money you have for your project decreases, you
may be able to do as much, but your time may increase.

5. Project Management expertise

• In order for you, as the project manager, to manage the competing project constraints
and the project as a whole, there are some areas of expertise you should bring to the
project team.
• They are:
○ knowledge of the application area and the standards and regulations in your
industry;
○ understanding of the project environment;
○ general management knowledge and skills;
○ interpersonal skills.
- It should be noted that industry expertise is not in a certain field but the expertise to
run the project.
- So while knowledge of the type of industry is important, you will have a project team
supporting you in this endeavor.
○ For example, if you are managing a project that is building an oil platform, you
would not be expected to have a detailed understanding of the engineering since
your team will have mechanical and civil engineers who will provide the
appropriate expertise; however, it would definitely help if you understood this
type of work.

6. Application Knowledge
• Standards: guidelines or preferred approaches that are not necessarily mandatory.
• Regulations: mandatory rules that must be followed, such as government-imposed
requirements through laws
• Every industry has standards and regulations. Knowing which ones affect your project before
you begin work will not only help the project to unfold smoothly, but will also allow for
effective risk analysis.
• Application areas are made up of categories of projects that have common elements.
○ They can be defined by industry group (pharmaceutical, financial, etc.),
department (accounting, marketing, legal, etc.), technology (software
development, engineering, etc), or management specialties (procurement,
research and development, etc.).
• These application areas are usually concerned with disciplines, regulations, and the
specific needs of the project, the customer, or the industry.

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 specific needs of the project, the customer, or the industry.
○ For example, most government agencies have specific procurement rules that
apply to their projects that wouldn’t be applicable in the construction industry.
The pharmaceutical industry is interested in regulations set forth by government
regulators, whereas the automotive industry has little or no concern for either of
these types of regulations.
○ You need to stay up-to-date regarding your industry so that you can apply your
knowledge effectively. Today’s fast-paced advances can leave you behind fairly
quickly if you don’t stay abreast of current trends. Having some level of
experience in the application area you’re working in will give you an advantage
when it comes to project management. While you can call in experts who have
the application area knowledge, it doesn’t hurt for you to understand the specific
aspects of the application areas of your project.

7. Understanding the Project Environment

• There are many factors that need to be understood within your project environment
• Important environments:
○ Cultural;
○ Social;
○ International;
○ Political;
○ Physical: time zones, countries, and how differently the project will be executed
whether it is just in your country or if it involves na international project team
that is distributed throughout the world.
• The physical one is the easiest to understand and the cultural and international factors
are ofthen misunderstood or ignored.
• How we deal with clients, customers, or project members from other countries can be
critical to the success of the project.
○ For example, the culture of the United States values accomplishments and
individualism. Americans tend to be informal and call each other by first names,
even if having just met. Europeans tend to be more formal, using surnames
instead of first names in a business setting, even if they know each other well. In
addition, their communication style is more formal than in the United States, and
while they tend to value individualism, they also value history, hierarchy, and
loyalty. The Japanese, on the other hand, tend to communicate indirectly and
consider themselves part of a group, not as individuals. The Japanese value hard
work and success, as most of us do.
• How a product is received can be very dependent on the international cultural
differences.
• The diversity of practices and cultures and its impact on products in general goes well
• Project managers in multicultural projects must appreciate the culture dimensions
and try to learn relevant customs, courtesies, and business protocols before taking
responsibility for managing an international project.
• A project manager must take into consideration these various cultural influences and
how they may affect the project’s completion, schedule, scope, and cost.

8. Management Knowledge and skill

• As the project manager, you have to rely on your project management knowledge and
your general management skills.
• Skills such as :
○ ability to plan the project;
○ execute it properly;
control it;
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 ○ control it;
○ bring it to a successful conclusion;
○ guide the project team to achieve project objectives;
○ balance project constraints.
• There is more to project management than just getting the work done. Inherent in the
process of project management are the general management skills that allow the
project manager to complete the project with some level of efficiency and control.
• In some aspects, managing a project is similar to running a business: there are risk and
rewards, finance and accounting activities, human resource issues, time management,
stress management, and a purpose for the project to exist. General management skills
are needed in every project.

9. Interpersonal Skills
• Ability to manage personal relationships and deal with personnel issues as they arise.
• Required skills: communication, influence, leadership, motivation, negotiation and
problem solving.

Communication
• they must be good communicators, promoting clear, unambiguous exchange of
information.
• it is your job to keep a number of people well informed.
• It is essential that your project staff know what is expected of them: what they have to
do, when they have to do it, and what budget and time constraints and quality
specifications they are working toward.
• If project staff members do not know what their tasks are, or how to accomplish them,
then the entire project will grind to a halt.
• If you do not know what the project staff is (or often is not) doing, then you will be
unable to monitor project progress.
• Finally, if you are uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the project will
not even get off the ground.
• Project communication can thus be summed up as knowing “who needs what
information and when” and making sure they have it.
• Not all projects will have the same types of communication or the same methods for
distributing the information.
○ For example, will information be distributed via mail or email, is there a shared
website, or are face-to-face meetings required?
○ The communication management plan documents how the communication
needs of the stakeholders will be met, including the types of information that will
be communicated, who will communicate them, and who will receive them;
○ the methods used to communicate; the timing and frequency of communication;
the method for updating the plan as the project progresses, including the
escalation process; and a glossary of common terms.
Influence
• Project management is about getting things done.
• Every organization is different in its policies, modes of operations, and underlying
culture.
• There are political alliances, differing motivations, conflicting interests, and power
struggles.
• A project manager must understand all of the unspoken influences at work within an
organization.

Leadership
• Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward expected

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 • Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward expected
results.
• Leaders inspire vision and rally people around common goals.
• A good project manager can motivate and inspire the project team to see the vision
and value of the project.
• The project manager as a leader can inspire the project team to find a solution to
overcome perceived obstacles to get the work done.
Motivation
• Motivation helps people work more efficiently and produce better results.
• Motivation is a constant process that the project manager must guide to help the team
move toward completion with passion and a profound reason to complete the work.
• Motivating the team is accomplished by using a variety of team-building techniques
and exercises.
• Team building is simply getting a diverse group of people to work together in the most
efficient and effective manner possible.
○ This may involve management events as well as individual actions designed to
improve team performance.
• Recognition and rewards are an important part of team motivations.
○ They are formal ways of recognizing and promoting desirable behavior and are
most effective when carried out by the management team and the project
manager.
○ Consider individual preferences and cultural differences when using rewards and
recognition. Some people don’t like to be recognized in front of a group; others
thrive on it.

Negotiation
• Project managers must negotiate for the good of the project.
• In any project, the project manager, the project sponsor, and the project team will
have to negotiate with stakeholders, vendors, and customers to reach a level of
agreement acceptable to all parties involved in the negotiation process.

Problem Solving
• Problem solving is the ability to understand the heart of a problem, look for a viable
solution, and then make a decision to implement that solution.
• The starting point for problem solving is problem definition.
• Problem definition is the ability to understand the cause and effect of the problem;
this centers on root-cause analysis.
○ If a project manager treats only the symptoms of a problem rather than its cause,
the symptoms will perpetuate and continue through the project life. Even worse,
treating a symptom may result in a greater problem.
○ For example, increasing the ampere rating of a fuse in your car because the old
one keeps blowing does not solve the problem of an electrical short that could
result in a fire.
○
• Root-cause analysis looks beyond the immediate symptoms to the cause of the
symptoms, which then affords opportunities for solutions.
○ Once the root of a problem has been identified, a decision must be made to
effectively address the problem.
○ Solutions can be presented from vendors, the project team, the project manager,
or various stakeholders.
○ A viable solution focuses on more than just the problem; it looks at the cause
and effect of the solution itself.
In addition, a timely decision is needed or the window of opportunity may pass

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 ○ In addition, a timely decision is needed or the window of opportunity may pass
and then a new decision will be needed to address the problem.
• As in most cases, the worst thing you can do is nothing.

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